A group of at least 30 migrants who were trying to cross the border at point 36 between Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, in the United States, received a convoy of agents from the National Migration Institute (INM) with stones.
The migrants argued that since Monday night they have been harassed and even reported a child’s head injury.
Although the INM agents did not repel the attacks, they did force the migrants to leave the site and accompanied them to a group of journalists along the banks of the Rio Grande, towards the east, for about 6 miles.
Asylum seekers, from different countries, took advantage of the opportunity to complain about crimes committed against them and requested the presence of humanitarian organizations.
Since the beginning of the week, a group of more than 100 Immigration agents arrived in the city and began an operation to prevent migrants from setting up camps or settling on the banks of the Rio Grande.
On Tuesday morning, the group of people were waiting to cross the river when about 30 INM agents showed up in six vehicles, which were met with stones and subsequently there was a verbal altercation.
“Put me on a patrol car and I’ll cut my wrists, I’m tired of you robbing us yourselves!” a migrant challenged the officers who were taking them along the river bank.
During the tour, one of the women in the group fainted and one of them fell due to a foot injury.
“The same Immigration agents handed us over to the cartel, they robbed us, the Immigration agents took away my cousin’s identity card and demanded 5,000 pesos (about $300 dollars) to return it,” claimed another of the migrants.
A female doctor from Venezuela, identified as Ge Mirazocar, said that on Monday night Immigration officials attacked them.
“What the Mexican authorities are doing to us is outrageous. I was kidnapped by Immigration on the famous trip to La Fortuna, where they took 6,000 pesos (about $365 dollars) and my phone. The cartel also grabbed us, the state police also detain you and take money from you and threaten to deport you if you don’t. you pay,” said the professional.
She stated that she and her son, as well as other minors in the contingent, have been without food or water for six days.
“When the press came they started giving water to the children, they hit one of them in the head with a rock. One comes to rely on the Mexican authorities, but here it is not possible. They throw you to Tapachula, to Bello Horizonte or to Tabasco,” he said.
For his part, Alberto Rafael González Méndez, who arrived from Venezuela five days ago, reported that in the confrontation with the Immigration agents they threatened to transfer them to Tapachula, but when the media arrived they refrained.
“Immigration is chasing us, last night they hit us with stones. “They want to take us to Tapachula, they don’t give us a solution, we ask them where they are going to deport us and they tell us wherever they want because they are the authority,” said the Venezuelan during the walk along the border.
The border between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso has been the center of the migratory flow since 2023, when Mexico reported an increase of about 77% in irregular migration, with more than 782,000 irregular migrants detected.
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